Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¿Te gusta leer lentamente?

¿Te gusta leer lentamente?

Do you like to read slowly?

Breakdown of ¿Te gusta leer lentamente?

to you / you (direct object)

lento

slow

Questions & Answers about ¿Te gusta leer lentamente?

Why is the adverb lentamente and not lentomente?

In Spanish, adverbs ending in -mente are built using the feminine form of the adjective. Since the adjective for "slow" is lento, you first change it to the feminine lenta, and then add -mente to get lentamente.

Can I just use lento instead of lentamente?

Yes, in everyday spoken Spanish, people often use the base adjective lento to mean "slowly", so you might hear ¿Te gusta leer lento?. However, lentamente is the grammatically standard adverb form taught here.

Why isn't the verb leer conjugated here?

When you talk about liking a specific activity, you use the unconjugated infinitive form of the action verb. Here, leer follows gustar to mean the general activity of "reading" or "to read".

Why does this sentence start with Te instead of Tú?

The verb gustar works differently than "to like" in English. It literally means "to be pleasing to." Instead of saying "You like reading," the Spanish structure is exactly "Reading is pleasing to you." The word Te is the pronoun for "to you."